Thursday, March 25, 2010

We were the only ones to talk to Rob alone inside his elegant suite at the Loews Hotel-Regency, in Park Avenue, New York City. He was nice, humble and he talked about everything about his new movie Remember Me.

As he’s describing his adventures on the set of the movie, which was total chaos, we found it interesting that the super star talks in such a low register that we were actually afraid our recorder wouldn’t pick up his voice during the interview. On one side, director Allen Culter assured us that he wasn’t exagerating when he told us about the crowds of fans on the set of the movie: “There were girls that actually flew from Japan to see Rob making this movie. It was terrible. It really made the shooting a nightmare”.In Remember Me, Rob has the company of Emilie de Ravin, Chris Copper,Lena Olin, and Pierce Brosnan, who describes Pattinson as: “a young man who has been catapulted into the stratusphere of fame. As far as I can tell, he has a good heart, he’s humble, and he was very brave when he chose de role of Tyler, because he’s carrying the weight from Twilight, literally breathing on his neck. It’s up to him to choose interesting roles to film in between filming blockbuster movies”.

After waiting for him for over 30 minutes on his suite, he finally appears, smiley as ever and very shy, sporting black jeans, grey t-shirt with a black t-shirt underneath, green jacket and a bottle of water in hand. We are meeting him to talk about his movie Remember Me, a movie in which he plays a very different guy from his character in Twilight: “he’s someone who, after the loss of his brother, he feels lost. He has wealthy parents but he’s very proud and he’s not good at anything. He has attitude problems, which is not unusual for someone his age, when you think you know more than everybody else”.

Nicholas Osbourne, producer of the movie, talked about how happy he was Rob accepted the role right after Twilight’s success: “we were working in this projects just when the first movie came out, and normally when an actor reaches the level of success Rob has, it’s very likely that his manager will call you and tell you that he can no longer do the project. However, Rob not only kept his word, but also his help was basic tomake this film, and that’s why he has the title of executive producer”.

Why don’t you consider yourself a real producer?Rob: When I came on board, almost eveything was done. I liked the idea that Allen Coulter and Wil Ferrell had in mind for the movie, so I only helped keep that idea alive, so the studio didn’t change it. I only backed up what they wanted to do from the beginning, but the real job comes from the actual producers. I felt bad when I saw the credit, but I couldn’t ask them to remove it, since I didn’t want to seem ungrateful. I’m glad that thanks to the success of Twilight, this project found financial support. It’s one of the great things that come out from being on a saga like this.

You probably get tons of offers, why did you choose Remember Me?I don’t know, I read the script the summer after finishing filming Twilight, and there was something about the story that captivated me and I could relate to it. I liked that the script didn’t have the typical formula, and that it wasn’t your average teenage film, with the typical story line. You really can’t say it belongs to just one genre, so I realized I had to be part of it. I had the advantage of having free time between the second and third filming of the Twilight sequels, and it’s a small movie, so we didn’t need that much time. It was the perfect option at the moment. I could not miss the chance.

Can you relate to Tyler’s view of the world?I don’t think he has a vision of the world, which is one of the things I liked about his character. He’srebellious and that seems to come out of nowhere, he doesn’t have a specific interest in life, or something that he’s passionate about, nobody has ever taken anything away from him. He rebells simply because there’s nothing that can stop him from doing it. He has this anger bottled up inside of him and he doesn’t know what to do with it. I could relate to him in the sense that he didn’t feel like doing anything, and at the time I wasn’tdoing anything either, so Iwas just as bored as him (laughs).

What part of him did you like the most?The fact that he sees a deeper meaning in everything, he appreciates life and lives it in a very intense way. I sometimes wonder if I’m really enjoying things as I should, or if I’m not seeing things in their real magnitude. I guess that’s what I really liked about the character, and made me feel like I could relate to him; just the way he sees everything whether it’s good or bad.

Is it easier for you to play someone like Tyler, or someone who is on another stage of their life?I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I think the only way to play something in a more real way is making it as yours as possible, looking for things that you have in common with your character. That obviously doesn’t mean that you’re playing yourself, but just being his age was something that really helped me and made me feel like I could relate to him.

This movie is like a tribute to New York, did you have the chance to enjoy the city when you were filming?I loved filming here, it was like a dream come true, living this care free life in the East Village, that’s the life I would like to have if I was a student. During filming I didn’t have the time to enjoy the city because it was complicated to go out, because of the paparazzi and the fans following me everywhere. But my sister lived here a few years ago, so I had the chance to see the city. During filming I was locked up in my hotel room most of the times (laughs), but being on the big apple is always fun.

You’re and actor and a musician, can we expect a little surprise from you soon?I would like to do something, but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself.

You filmed the Twilight sequels almost back-to-back, was it complicated to film them so close to each other? You don’t feel oversaturated?It was complicated. Right after New Moon I did Remember Me, and right after Remember Me I did Eclipse. It was hard because the roles are very different from each other and had very little time to prepare myself for each of them.

Do you have any time to write music now that you’re so busy with acting?I used to write a lot, and some songs came out during some gigs, I improvised and things just came out, like two verses of a new song. But when you have the pressure of something else, it’s different and I can’t work like that. My process of writing was all about the energy I felt during the gigs I played, I didn’t think much, it was just an unconscious process. Sitting down and write songs just like that is a little complicated to me, plus I can’t do two things at the same time. When I’m making a movie I don’t listen to music. I’ll make one more movie after the one I’m filming right now, so in between I might have some time to write new music. Luckily that’ll happen by the end of the year.

How complicated was it to focus on the out door scenes with Emilie when there were hundreds of reporters and fans around the whole time, screaming?Emilie was very understanding about the paparazzi, and the fans wouldn’t stop making noise, plus there actually were many people just there to see her, because Lost has a huge fanbase as well. When her fans knew she was there the crazyness duplicated (laughs). She actually remained very cool when it came to crowds, and both of us were really looking forward to play new characters, after focusing on just one for a while.

Was it annoying to film that way?I remember one day I was so angry at all the interruptions, that I was actually about to do something about it, but someone from the crew said: “can you imagine what would happen if you hit someone and there’s 40 people taking pictures of it?” that made me laugh and I cooled off.

How do you keep your sanity after how much your life has changed in these past two years?I think that even when I’m talking to my fans, I still have an American accent, like I haven’t left my Twilight character and I’m still acting. It’s the only way I can deal with it, I guess.

Do you have any regrets?I regret changing my teeth a little bit to make the first Twilight movie. I was supposed to wear veneers but I never got them, so now I really messed up my teeth (laughs).

What was it like working with the super famous Pierce Brosnan?It was great, although we didn’t film that many scenes together. But he was always open to talk about different subjects and he made a very cool environment. He came over riding his bike, he’s not prestencious at all and he works harder than anyone else. It’s interesting because now he really enjoys having small parts in filmsand not being the leading character. He’s happy he’s not James Bond anymore.

Do you see this movie like your chance to show people that you’re so much more than the Twilight vampire?I think Remember Me matters to me for many reasons. I’m not sure one of those reasons is to prove that I’m more than Twilight. I also did the two sequels of the Twilight movies because they matter to me for different reasons, these are steps that I needed to take for my career, and I think I’ve learned something from them.

Are you still interested about doing independent films?Not necessarily. I just want to make movies with scripts that I find appealing. I don’t choose roles based on the budget, I pay attention to the story and that it’s different from everything I’ve done before, and that the cast is made up of actors with established careers, well-known and interesting, those that I can get a good experience from.

In this movie you smoke the whole time. Do you smoke a lot in real life too?No, because you can’t smoke in many places, but I chew nicotine gum, which I don’t like but they help when I’m on a plane, and they don’t help at all, in fact, they make it worse. I think chewing that gum makes me want to smoke more (laughs).

What can you share about The Twilight Saga: Eclipse?Nothing really, I haven’t seen it.I just saw the trailer today.